Unusual Narrow Gauge Railroads

Mountain Man

Active Member
I recently came across a small book while browsing my LHS. titled Fortress Railroads. Intrigued because of the unusualness and my interest in military history, I checked it out.

The book was about the Russian coastal defense fortresses which were quite large and which each had it's own small gauge railroay to move men, supplies and ammunition. The gauge was two-feet, and each fortress had full facilities, including a roundhouse, shops, coal bunkers, and all the rest. They seem to have had several locos and quite a bit of rolling stock at each one, understandable when considering that the average caliber of shore guns was 12 inches, requiring a lot of haulage capacity, and they also served to move the gun crews around as well.

It seemed like something that would make an unusual modelling project, our perhaps a diorama type of thing with a lot of switching.
 

nkp174

Active Member
Really cool. I know that there were front railroads during WWII...2' gauge iirc. Would make an intriguing layout.
 

Mountain Man

Active Member
Yes, the British had an extensive narrow gauge rail network to serve the WWI front, and I'm sure the Germans did as well. As late as WWII the British had a second extensive narrow gauge rail system to serve the English Channel Coastal defenses.
 
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